A Moment Of Inertia
by vands88
Summary: Set immediately after 4x15 "House's Head". Cameron visits House; it's almost like the old days.


**Title:** A Moment Of Inertia  
**Rating:** PG  
**Characters/Pairings:** vaguely House/Cameron & other main characters  
**Genre:** General/Angst/Friendship  
**Word Count:** 800  
**Summary:** Set immediately after "House's Head". Cameron visits House. It's almost like the old days.  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own House MD or any of the characters, places, or plots mentioned in this story. Just a bit of fan appreciation to avoid revision.

**A/N:** I know you guys have missed my House/Cameron fics, so here's a little angsty piece set after last episode to remedy that. It's kind of a Cameron character study, but it's mainly just a general "missing scene" kind of thing.  
Unbeta'd; all mistakes are mine. Took me a grand total of about an hour to write; don't expect miracles.

* * *

Two hours, forty-two minutes and thirteen seconds.

Cameron managed almost three hours before she found herself outside his hospital room. She heard the new fellows practically had to chain him to the bed, both after his initial concussion and after his drug-induced hallucination a couple of hours previously. If the circumstances were any different, she would laugh at how characteristic of House this was. But they weren't.

They had found Amber at Princeton General; and from what Cameron had gathered from fellow doctors, the blonde with the mysterious illness was in a bad state.

Cameron casually glanced through the window of House's room; she didn't know why she was ashamed to be seen here, only that she was. She should have been back in the ER, or making sure Wilson was okay, or…something. Something other than being back here; back by his side because no one else wanted to be. House may be an ass but he didn't deserve to be alone, even if he did claim to resent the company.

She sighed and entered his room, thankful that whatever sedatives Thirteen gave him were doing the trick. He needed rest; and the longer he remained oblivious to Wilson's girlfriend fighting for her life the other side of the hospital, the better.

Cameron found her way to the deserted chair that was optimistically positioned by the bed; she used to feel a lot less awkward waiting for him to recover, but now she felt like a ghost of her past self sitting on the uncomfortable stool.

Her hand twitched in her lap, begging to reach out and hold his hand that lay innocently in front of her. The urge was more a habit than anything else, and she brushed it aside, instead choosing to watch the seconds tick by on the clock above the door.

"Nearly three hours. Impressive." She tensed at the unexpected (but definitely familiar) croaky voice behind her.

Cameron turned to see House looking strangely smug with himself.

"What?" She asked distractedly, handing him the glass of water that sat on his bedside.

"You waited nearly three hours before coming to see me." He explained, gulping down the water to help clear his voice, "I knew that obsessively caring gene in you wouldn't be able to stay away for much longer. You really are pathetic."

Cameron smirked at his harsh comment; she didn't expect anything less. "If it helps dampen your ego, I'm only here because everyone else is…" She suddenly remembered why he was here in the first place, "…occupied."

"You mean with Amber."

She bit her lip in frustration at herself; she didn't mean to mention it because that meant he would ask questions and questions were rarely a good thing when it concerned House.

"Yeah." She trailed off nervously, desperately looking around the small room for a distraction. She came up empty handed.

"How is she?"

"They're handling it; you don't need to help." She said on impulse. House needed to rest; the last thing he needed was to be running around the hospital trying to help Amber.

"That's not what I asked." He replied with a rising impatience.

Cameron turned to look at him, and for the first time, met his eyes. He needed to know.

"Not good." She sighed, "Her injuries from the crash are extensive and combined with her other symptoms…it's not looking good, House." She explained empathically, watching as the beginnings of a theory formed in his mind, thoughts flashing across his mysterious blue eyes.

"You're a waste of space. I need to speak to actual doctors who have a clue what's going on." He insulted, carelessly unplugging his IV and heart monitor as he sat up in his hospital gown.

"House. You need to rest." Cameron instructed, as if speaking to a small child.

"And you need to admit you're miserable. We're both too stubborn to do either, so why don't you just help me up?" He grumbled back at her, as he attempted to get out of the bed.

She didn't have time to argue back, as he tried to clamber off the bed and she rushed over to support him. House welcomed the support, leaning against her as he stood up, his arm around her shoulders. She barely had a second to react to the touch before he muttered something about his cane, and she hurried to get the hospital replacement from against the foot of the bed.

"Don't do anything stupid." Cameron said meaningfully as she passed the cane back to him.

"Could say the same to you." House smirked back, before walking to the door.

He didn't look back as he raced down the corridor in search of his patient.

She hated herself for wanting to join him and resented that no matter how hard she tried; she was unable to move on.

* * *

Comments and concrit are welcome! :-)


End file.
